The Charity Commission spent nearly £13,000 paying a barrister to defend it in a High Court judicial review of its actions against the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust last year, according to the commission’s response to questions from Third Sector under the Freedom of Information Act.

The commission has also calculated, according to a spokeswoman, that work on the case by its internal litigation team was worth £22,500 – 139 hours at an average rate of £162 a hour – which is the amount it would have claimed if it had been awarded costs in the court case.

I am a journalist and author. I am a staff writer at the UK edition of WIRED magazine and in 2015 my book, Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. I created FOI Directory in 2012.